Women Are ‘Fastest-Growing Group of Gun Owners’

Gun sales are on a record-setting pace since President Obama took office, and a driving force behind those sales are the women who have emerged as the “fastest-growing group of gun owners” in America.

The emergence of women as a gun-owning demographic to be reckoned with became evident in 2011 and 2012. The NRA reports a Gallup Poll showing a 23 percent jump in female firearms ownership between 2005 and 2011, and this poll is complimented by National Shooting Sports Foundation research showing that among those female gun owners, the largest percentage own more than one gun. In fact, “42 percent of women who own a firearm have at least three.”

Women have now solidified their place in the gun owning/gun buying/sport shooting world. So much so that the NSSF’s Firearms Retailer Survey Report 2016 shows “the women’s market is a force in our industry, and manufacturers, retailers and shooting ranges are making changes to their products and services to satisfy women’s tastes and needs.”

Because of these things, the NRA shows that “30 percent” of concealed carry and related merchandise is manufactured with strictly women in mind.

On July 31 Milwaukee’s CBS 58 ran a story in which they looked at the exceptional growth in female gun ownership and described it as another expression of “girl power.” From stay-at-home moms to business women to grandmothers, the realization that self-defense really rests in their own hands has taken root. And with concealed carry legal in all 50 states, the handgun has increasingly become “the must-have accessory.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.